Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA’s Voyager mission completed humankind’s first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system. Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were far more complex than scientists had imagined. There was a lot more to be learned. A NASA Hubble Space Telescope observation program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) obtains long-term baseline observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in order to understand…
Diversity and metabolic potential of globally distributed endosymbionts. Scientists from Bremen, Germany, find peculiar mitochondria-like symbionts all over the world, and unveil their surprising metabolic capacities. Their results are now published in Nature Communications. In 2021, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, reported an astonishing new form of symbiosis: They found a unique bacterium that lives inside a ciliate – a unicellular eukaryote – and provides it with energy. The symbiont’s role is thus strongly reminiscent…
… new targeted drug gives them an offer they can’t refuse. A group of scientists at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center has revealed a new genetic code that recruits and deploys tumor cells to invade healthy organs and overpower normal cells. A group of scientists at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center has revealed a new genetic code that acts like a cancer ringleader, recruiting and deploying a gang of tumor cells to incite a biological turf war by invading healthy…
Broadly effective innovative vaccine design. Globally, approximately 58 million people are chronically infected with HCV, resulting in 290,000 annual deaths due to complications such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Although modern antiviral treatments achieve high cure rates, the global elimination of HCV remains a difficult goal due to inadequate early detection and limited treatment options. Indeed, HCV has been identified as one of the globally prioritized endemic pathogens for vaccine research and development in the World Health Organization’s “Immunization…
MHH gastroenterologist Dr Bernd Heinrich is investigating how bacteria and immune cells exchange information in the tumour environment. The Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation has honoured him with a Memorial Fellowship worth 250,000 euros for his work. Bile duct cancer is a rare but serious disease that is usually fatal. Known technically as cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), it can affect the bile ducts inside and outside the liver. The frequency of cases is increasing worldwide and the chances of recovery are considered poor….
DFKI develops autonomous underwater robot to monitor marine biodiversity. Sustainable monitoring of the marine environment is crucial for the environmentally responsible operation of offshore wind farms and the protection of biodiversity. In the SeaMe project, RWE is collaborating with leading research partners to develop innovative technologies for comprehensive ecosystem monitoring. The goal is to replace costly, invasive, and CO2-intensive methods. The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is contributing by equipping an autonomous underwater vehicle with oceanographic sensors and…
TU Graz Evaluates Lightning Risk in Real Time. Airport aprons, large construction sites or open-air events are usually defenceless against lightning. To increase safety and reduce downtimes, electrical engineers at TU Graz are developing a forecasting system. Thunderstorms and working outdoors are bad companions. As it is not possible to predict when and where the next lightning discharge will strike, all activities in working areas with high exposure to lightning, such as on the apron of an airport, are suspended…
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago’s milestone achievement tracks protein levels in real time, enabling monitoring of inflammation at the cellular level. Proteins are the building blocks of life, and changes in protein levels can indicate improving health or impending illness, including signs of inflammation. While protein levels can be measured in periodic blood or urine tests, it has been an uphill challenge to figure out how to continuously monitor protein levels in the human body in real time. Now, a team…
MHH physician Dr Stephan Traidl is investigating the effects of systemic therapies for atopic dermatitis. The Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation honours him with the Memorial Scholarship worth 250,000 euros. Unbearable itching and dry, flaky skin are among the typical signs of atopic dermatitis. It is one of the most common chronic inflammatory skin diseases. In Germany, up to 2.5 million people are affected every year, of which around 1.3 million are children and adolescents. The disease usually begins in infancy…
Circadian clocks control physiological processes and behavior in virtually all living organisms. Now an international research team led by researchers from the University of Würzburg has created a detailed map of the internal clock in the brain of the fruit fly. All animals including humans are subject to daily rhythms in their activity and sleep, hunger, metabolism, and reproduction. The system that regulates these biological rhythms is known as the circadian clock. It controls all processes in the body within…
Microbial communities, such as those found in the gut microbiome or other body regions, are crucial for the health and development of hosts. However, understanding how these microbes interact with each other – whether they compete, cooperate, or influence each other indirectly – has been difficult to decipher. A new method now sheds more light on this issue: an innovative stochastic approach that allows for more precise analysis of interactions between microbes. Traditional models for analyzing microbial communities often rely…
“Our results have no clear or direct application right now. It’s basic research that lays the foundation for future technologies in quantum information and quantum computers. There’s enormous potential for completely new discoveries in many different research fields,” says Guilherme B Xavier, researcher in quantum communication at Linköping University, Sweden. But to understand what the researchers have shown, we need to start at the beginning. That light can be both particles and waves is one of the most illogical –…
A Path to Innovative Vaccines and Therapies. A research team led by Prof. Julia Esser-von Bieren from the Center of Allergy and Environment (ZAUM) at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich, as well as the University of Lausanne (UNIL) has uncovered a molecular strategy employed by worm parasites (helminths) to evade host immune defenses. This discovery opens new avenues for the development of innovative vaccines and therapies. Published in Science Immunology, the study offers promising solutions for addressing…
New research has revealed that fish embryos actively control their hatching timing through a neurohormone, Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone (TRH), which triggers the release of enzymes that dissolve the egg wall. This groundbreaking discovery uncovers a previously unknown neural mechanism that governs a critical life-stage transition, showing that embryos are not passive but instead actively make life-or-death decisions. The finding has significant evolutionary implications, offering new insights into neurobiology, survival strategies, and environmental adaptation in vertebrates. Dr. Matan Golan of the Hebrew…
Researchers find a potential explanation for the unusually sudden temperature rise in 2023: reduced low-level cloud cover limits Earth’s ability to reflect solar radiation. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, heatwaves at sea – 2023 set a number of alarming new records. The global mean temperature also rose to nearly 1.5 degrees above the preindustrial level, another record. Seeking to identify the causes of this sudden rise has proven a challenge for researchers. After all, factoring in the effects of anthropogenic…
– a promising target for treating pain. Cellular studies reveal neuropilin-1 is required for signaling pain and may offer a new approach for developing or repurposing therapies to address chronic pain. Researchers at the NYU Pain Research Center have found a new receptor for nerve growth factor that plays an important role in pain signaling, even though it does not signal on its own, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The findings hold promise for…
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